[ut3] UT3 Linux client progress

[Ryan]

Slavik Goltser wrote:
> Ryan,
>
> I am writing this in the hopes that you will read this and maybe even 
> consider responding.
>
> On November 19, 2007 we saw the release of Unreal Tournament 3 for PC. 
> Since then, there had been ports of this game from x86 based code to 
> two completely different CPU architectures. I am, of course, talking 
> about PowerPC that is powering XBOX 360 and the heavily modified 
> PowerPC that is power PS3. The said ports, both happened within 6 
> months of the PC version being released, with the PS3 version using 
> OpenGL for rendering. This is now almost 2 years after the initial PC 
> release and so far we have only seen screen captures of Unreal 
> Tournament 3 running in Ubuntu GNU/Linux and Macintosh OS X. At this 
> point in time, where a full blown game could've been designed, built 
> and produced, one question remains. Where is the Linux version of 
> Unreal Tournament 3?
>
> Around the beginning April of 2008, Mark Rein was interviewed about 
> Unreal Engine and Gears of War 2 (I do not remember the context or who 
> did the interview). During the interview he stated that Unreal 
> Tournament 3 for Linux has become a pet project. As someone who was 
> trained to be a developer in college (BS in Computer Information 
> Science, CUNY @ Brooklyn College, Summer 2007) I know what happens to 
> pet projects when you are in a workplace; they get mothballed. In the 
> art book that came with the collector's edition of Unreal Tournament 
> 3, Mike Capps (President of Epic Games), writes the following 
> (emphasis mine):
>
>     Our message to you, is that we really, really care about this
>     franchise, about making fun games, about constantly pushing games
>     technology forward, and *about fans like you*. You might not
>     always like what we do, and you're not shy about telling us on the
>     forums when you don't! But what keeps us up late nights on this
>     franchise isn't money, or fame - not even the physiologically
>     unsound amount of caffeine drunk at Epic could keep us up that late.
>
>
> I work for a managed services provider and can guarantee you that in 
> the past year you have dealt directly (even more so indirectly) with 
> the systems which we support for our clients. I also know how such 
> paragraphs get written. First, notice how Mr. Capps mentions fans (us, 
> the subscribers to this list) at the very end of the sentence, we are 
> clearly the last in the line of thoughts of at the very least, the 
> upper management (fans always are). Second, Mr. Capps mentions that 
> it's not the money or the fame or the caffeine that keeps everyone up 
> late at night. What does keep everyone up late at night are the 
> deadlines that are always arbitrarily set (you can never set a 
> realistic deadline on a software project). The deadlines come from 
> contracts, which also mention very large amount of money. But no 
> matter how bad the things get, you always tell the client that 
> everything is peachy. That is how business works. Thirdly we have the 
> blurb from Mr. Rein that Unreal Tournament 3 for Linux is a pet project.
>
> At this point (after almost 2 years since the initial release), we 
> have had updates from you (via phoronix.com <http://phoronix.com>) 
> that the Linux client is still being worked on and that bugs are being 
> fixed and client optimized. But is it really? Are there so many bugs 
> at this point that you would not even release a beta version to allow 
> the gaming community to test it? This is something we are willing to 
> do for free! (and have done so for many MMOs) Heck, we've even payed 
> to beta test games by the means of pre-ordering them. Let us help you!
>
> Sincerely,
> Slava
> Someone who can't play UT3
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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>   
Thats a real sad song, too bad sad songs ain't sellin this year.